Wikitude Drive is the world’s first Augmented Reality (AR) navigation system and it is now available for download from AndroidPIT Germany

AndroidPIT

Wikitude Drive is the world’s first AR navigation system with coverage in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (and further to come soon). Navigate the streets without taking your eyes off the road as the AR view shows you exactly what is taking place in front of you whilst directing you to your location of choice.

AndroidPIT (link) are offering Wikitude Drive for download in their App Center at the special price of €7,99. AndroidPIT is a Web 2.0 network and an Android blog where Android experts, enthusiasts, developers and users all get together. This fast-moving and ever expanding blog has several thousands of readers and we at Wikitude are delighted that they are offering Wikitude Drive.

Wikitude Drive DE

Download Wikitude Drive from AndroidPit for a special price of €7.99 and discover the world of Augmented Reality Navigation for yourself!

1. Download “AndroidPIT App Center” at
   http://www.androidpit.de/de/android/market/app-center
2. Search for “Wikitude Drive” or click the Promo-Banner at androidpit.de

Cheers,
The Wikitude Team

“Wikitude Drive was the result and it serves as a fully-functional, light weight navigational system which overlays point-to-point directions on a camera-view, without the need for maps. In addition it provides users with Wikipedia information pertaining to the site you’re looking at. Mobilizy GmbH reveals a preview of it’s augmented reality navigation system, the first fully functional mobile AR navigation system available for the Android platform.”

Top Ten Augmented Reality Devices | InventorSpot

“Mobilizy’s Wikitude, an augmented reality app that overlays Wikipedia links onto your camera’s viewfinder, is still one of the most amazing apps in the Android Market. Wikitude Drive, which does the same with turn-by-turn directions, does it one better”

Wikitude Drive Android App Does Turn-By-Turn, Augmented-Reality-Style – Wikitude – Gizmodo

Mobilizy, which I’m not going to even attempt to pronounce, is the Austrian based startup responsible for Wikitude, arguably the first augmented reality application to ever grace smartphones. Today they’re launching something that finally makes augmented reality, which most mobile fanbois seem to think is going to be the next holy grail, and actually make it useful by using it as a navigation system for your automobile. It’s called Wikitude Drive.

Video: Wikitude Drive, augmented reality GPS navigation for your car

“Augmented reality is predicted to become a multibillion-dollar industry within five years, writes John Davidson.”

afr.com – The Australian Financial Review

Wikitude Drive from Austrian-based developers Mobilizy, is, at its core, a GPS navigation app. What makes the app stand out, however, is that instead of a map, you just see a real-time view of the street ahead of you and the navigation data is shown on top of this video. Wikitude Drive is currently under development and will run on Android phones. According to Mobilizy, the app will offer all the standard GPS navigation features drivers have become accustomed to. In addition, though, the company also plans to offer “social navigational features” that, for example, will help users find their friends’ location.

Mobilizy Previews Augmented Reality GPS Navigation App

“Austrian startup, Mobilizy, released a navigation system today as an experiment to see if augmented reality can work with driving directions.”

“The idea of using augmented reality, which superimposes data and information over the real world in a viewfinder, in navigation isn’t new. The military has long used it to guide fighter pilots and identify targets, but GPS-enabled smartphones with accelerometers have finally made commercial applications feasible.”

Austrian startup Mobilizy unveils augmented reality driving directions | VentureBeat

Mobilizy is a mobile software development company which focuses on augmented reality and location based services solutions.  Our primary product is the Wikitude World Browser,  but we are entering the field of navigation because Mobilizy believes that navigation is part of a natural evolutionary process within the field of mobile AR to help people get around in the world.

Wikitude Drive boasts the following features:

• Mobile AR navigation, similar to a heads up display (HUD);
• Fully functional, map-less navigation;
• POI 2 POI navigation;
• Integrated voice commands (additional text-to-speech engine required);
• World wide navigational data which is accessed in real-time from the internet; (a mobile internet connection is necessary to access data while in motion)
• Peer-to-peer navigational functions
 ( Social navigational features will be implemented in future releases)
• Interfaces with existing navigational APIs (for example: NavTeq, Map24, TeleAtlas)

According to Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis, CEO of Mobilizy GmbH, “our navigation system has a huge potential for location based advertisement, but we believe that the number one use case for Wikitude Drive is simply navigation.” With the announcement of Wikitude Drive, “Mobilizy is aiming to gain a competitive advantage through developing high-quality, innovative software solutions,” says Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis.  He goes on to also say that: “Wikitude Drive is part of a natural evolution in mobile augmented reality.  I believe there is much more to AR then simply planting colored POIs on a  cam-view, people want to know how to get to these POIs and Wikitude Drive shows the way.”

Mobilizy is investigating integration capabilities with mobile social-networks.  We are also seeking partnerships with innovative companies in the navigation industry to implement further develop our AR navigation system.  For more information about Wikitude Drive, and our unique mobile AR solutions please contact Andreas Hauser at: drive@mobilizy.com

About Mobilizy:

Mobilizy GmbH engages in the research and in-house development of location-based services and augmented (mixed) reality experiences for smart-phones.  Mobilizy is one of the leading innovators in developing new methods and applications for data acquisition and exchange in the emerging market of augmented reality.  Mobilizy is also an early pioneer in mobile augmented reality with it’s flagship product the Wikitude World Browser, which is the first practical mobile augmented reality application developed for the Android platform.

CONTACT:

Mobilizy GmbH
Jakob-Haringer Str 5/IV
5020 Salzburg
Austria

Phone: +43 662 45 45 55 – 425
Fax: +43 662 45 45 55 – 410
Web: www.mobilizy.com
media@mobilizy.com
www.twitter.com/wikitude
http://facebook.com/wikitude